The UConn Huskies had just flown back after suffering their worst loss of the season, and nobody was in a particularly good mood following the trip to Louisville.

Coach Kevin Ollie rang his star guard anyway, because this news was too good to sit on -- Napier was going to be named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year later in the week over co-favorite Sean Kilpatrick from Cincinnati.

"Coach Ollie called me and I was just waking up," Napier recalled after receiving the honor Wednesday afternoon at an awards reception at the Gibson Guitar Factory. "I was surprised. Like I said, I don't care about individual awards, you guys know that. I told him `that's nice' and he said, `Man, show some excitement.'"

Napier, who is the first Husky to win the honor since Hasheem Thabeet (co-Big East in 2008-09), was more than willing to spread the credit after receiving the honor, saying. "I wish I could break this award into 15 pieces (to share with my teammates)."

He also thanked his mom, Carmen VelÃ¡zquez, who attended the ceremony with his girlfriend, along with Ollie, the school's entire basketball staff and even the team managers.

"On a day when I'm getting congratulated the best thing I can do is recognize the people (behind) the scenes for doing the things I needed to do to get here," Napier said. "It's just a special feeling."

The fourth-seeded Huskies open tournament play Thursday night against host and No. 5 Memphis in the quarterfinal round ( approximately 9 p.m., ESPNU).

In AAC games, Napier finished second in scoring (19.3 average) and free-throw shooting (.877) while being third in steals (1.8) and assists (4.7). He's the first Husky to lead the team in scoring (17.8), rebounds (6.0) and assists (5.2) in a season.

"He believes in himself," Ollie said. "He believes in hard work will eventually pay off and I'm glad it did for him to get this award."

Kilpatrick was clearly disappointed in the outcome. The Bearcat led the conference in scoring (20.9 average) and was an unanimous first-team All-AAC selection along with Napier and Louisville's Russ Smith.

"When certain things go certain ways and you expect things to go the way you expected and all the numbers do line up and they don't go your way, of course it's some type of disappointment," Kilpatrick said. "But, you just have to use it as motivation and keep going. You can't let such a thing like that come in and distract everything you worked hard for."

The Bearcats (26-5) accomplished quite a bit during the regular season, winning a share of the first AAC title with Louisville and earning the top seed for the tournament on a coin flip. Cincinnati's Mick Cronin was named AAC Coach of the Year while senior forward Justin Jackson was the Defensive Player of Year.

In Cronin's acceptance speech, he referred to Kilpatrick as his "player of the year."